New Campaign Says ‘It’s 30 For A Reason’.
9 Jan 2006

West Midlands Casualty Reduction Partnership is supporting a national advertising campaign that explains why the 30mph speed limit exists and the potentially fatal consequences of not abiding by it. The campaign uses the strap line 'It's 30 for a reason'.

Posters displayed on billboards and bus backs illustrate that exceeding the 30mph limit greatly increases the risk of killing a pedestrian. The posters show a child’s head split in two with one half showing the skull and the other half showing a healthy 8 year old girl. The two halves demonstrate graphically that the survival rate of a child pedestrian hit by a car travelling at 40mph is just 20% compared to 80% if hit at 30mph.

The posters are supporting a national television advert which features the eight year old girl talking directly to the audience and illustrates in a highly visual way the differences between hitting her whilst driving at 40mph versus hitting her at 30mph.

Andrew Pearce, Scheme Manager of the Casualty Reduction Partnership said:

"Some 70% of motorists admit to speeding. This is simply not acceptable and I hope that this campaign will bring home the importance of driving within the limit to those who continue to drive too fast. UK roads are amongst the safest in the world, but with more than 3,000 killed every year we need to make them safer. As this campaign shows, every driver can play their part by slowing down a few miles an hour and ensuring they are at or under the speed limit at all times. Those who don’t will have to accept that they are at greater risk of causing or being involved in a collision and that if detected speeding they will face prosecution."